The Battle of Waterloo
The downfall of Napoleon Bonaparte
Just kidding.
Sorry folks, this is a US History class, so we
won’t do Waterloo today, but the name is similar.
Nixon and the Watergate Scandal
The Downfall of Nixon
“The True Crime of
Richard Nixon was simple:
He destroyed the myth that
binds America Together, and
for this he was driven from
power.
The myth he broke
was critical-that somewhere
in American life there is at
least one man who stands for
law, the President…It was
that faith that Richard Nixon
broke, betraying those who
voted for him even more than
those who voted against
him.”
-T.H.White
Background of Nixon
Born in California in
1918.
Was a Republican.
Served as President
from 1969-1974.
Announced resignation
August 8, 1974, nearly
facing impeachment.
Died April 22, 1994.
Setting the Scene
President Nixon was
set on winning the
1972 Presidential
Elections.
His aides went to
extreme measures
to try to ensure a
Nixon victory.
The Enemies List
With the help of Special Council Charles W.
Colson, Nixon created a list of people not friendly
to the Nixon administration.
This list was called the “enemies list”.
The list was made to battle political enemies.
Nixon’s aides would harass the people on the list.
Wiretaps
In 1969, a leak in secret information took
place, prompting Nixon to instruct Henry
Kissinger to install wiretaps on telephones of
people on his own staff and on a few
reporter’s phones.
Wiretaps were listening devices used to hear
telephone conversations that one was not
directly a part of.
Wiretaps installed for security reasons were
legal at the time, but the use of legal
wiretaps eventually led to their illegal use.
The Plumbers
Daniel Ellsberg, who used to work in the
Defense Department leaked secret Pentagon
information about Vietnam to the New York
Times in 1971.
In response to leaks, Nixon created a special
unit known as the Plumbers to stop these
government leaks.
The Plumbers were created so that Ellsberg
would be punished for leaking the secret
information.
Nixon’s Reelection Campaign
Headed by John Mitchell,
former Attorney General for
Nixon, the Committee to
Reelect the President
attempted to collect as much
money as possible while
before it became illegal to
not report where the raised
money came from.
The Committee sometimes
used false evidence to
discredit and sabotage
Nixon’s opponents.
The Watergate Break-In
One method used to try to
discredit Nixon’s opponents was
through the wiretapping of
phones at the Democratic
National Committee
headquarters in the Watergate
apartment complex.
In the attempt made to install
the wiretaps that took place on
June 17, 1972, five men
involved were arrest.
The money used in this attempt
was linked to Nixon’s
Committee.
The Watergate Break-In
The White House
worked hard to hide the
Watergate incident.
Watergate defendants
were bribed to be silent.
In the 1972 election,
Nixon beat George
McGovern by 520 to 17
electoral votes.
There was not,
however, a Republican
majority in either house
of Congress.
The Watergate Trial
Trial took place under
Judge John J. Sirica.
All defendants either
pleaded guilty or were
found guilty.
Sirica offered lower
sentences to those that
would cooperate and
speak out in the
upcoming Senate
hearings on Watergate.
The Senate Investigates
The Senate Select
Committee on Presidential
Campaign Activities started
investigating the Watergate
affair in February of 1973.
Some of Nixon’s staff
testified that Nixon was
aware of the cover-up.
One of Nixon’s aides
revealed that there were
video tapes of the
President’s office that could
prove or disprove Nixon’s
involvement.
“Saturday Night Massacre” and an
Administration in Jeopardy
Nixon tried to win back some favor by agreeing to appointment of a
Watergate prosecutor.
The prosecutor, Archibald Cox asked for the tapes. Nixon refused and
fired Cox, prompting a series of resignations and firings called the
“Saturday Night Massacre”.
Nixon’s approval rating had been dropping like a rock around this time.
Leon Jaworski, Cox’s replacement, also asked for the tapes. Nixon
agreed to turn them over, but edited out incriminating parts of the
tape. Many still were angry at comments in the edited version.
During this time, Nixon’s Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned because
of accusations of tax evasion.
Gerald Ford replaced Agnew as Nixon’s VP.
Hearings Begin
These affairs, especially
the “Saturday Night
Massacre,” caused
Congress to start
questioning whether
they should impeach
Nixon.
In 1974, the House
Judiciary Committee
voted to impeach the
President.
Nixon Resigns
Finally, on August 5, 1974,
Nixon agreed to release the
tapes in their original form.
There was a mysterious gap
of about 20 minutes in the
tapes, but the tapes clearly
demonstrated the extent of
Nixon’s involvement.
On August 9, 1974, Nixon
became the first President to
ever resign. Gerald Ford
succeeded Nixon.